What do East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green, Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall, Old Dominion, Kennesaw State, and Indiana State have in common?
Those nine teams are, in totality, the non-conference opposition faced by Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana on their respective paths to winning the last three national championships.
And in the mind of Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz, that's the secret sauce that has sprung the Big Ten's run to the mountaintop.
Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz says SEC coaches already regret moving to a nine-game conference schedule. He says Lane Kiffin has long been in front saying a move from eight games would be an issue.
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) July 20, 2026
Drinkwitz points to Big Ten not required to play A4 non-conference opponent.
Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz said part of reason B1G has won last 3 national titles: "When you don't play a (non-conference) A4 game"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 20, 2026
Of course, the Big Ten would gleefully counter with a list of its own: SEC champion Alabama, undefeated Pac-12 champion Washington, Tennessee (by 25 points), SEC runner-up Texas, Notre Dame, SEC runner-up Alabama (by 35 points), Oregon and Miami. Those are the teams Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana defeated on their respective paths to the crown. And in going 4-0 against the SEC in the last three College Football Playoffs, the Big Ten has helped keep the SEC out of the championship game, let alone the winner's podium. Since the '23 season, the SEC is 2-7 against non-SEC teams in the Playoff.
Still, the SEC has not been bashful about its belief that eight games in its conference is more difficult than nine elsewhere. Now, the league is moving to nine while keeping its requirement that each team play a 10th game against a Power 4 opponent, a requirement the Big Ten does not have. (For what it's worth, Michigan and Ohio State play Oklahoma and Texas, respectively, in non-conference this season. Indiana, Penn State and USC play no such game, and Oregon pays a return visit to rebuilding Oklahoma State.)
A master in the art of excrement-stirring, Drinkwitz came to SEC media days in Tampa on Monday armed with a talking point perfectly calibrated to provoke a reaction within and outside the SEC's orders.
"We don't get enough credit for how difficult the environments are that we play in. Watching the World Cup and people are, 'Man, these stadiums are awesome.' To play in front of 80,000, they thought that was a big stadium. They haven't been to Knoxville, Tennessee with 106,000. It's really difficult to play," he told SEC Network. "Every other year you're playing five road games in this league; you could have a damn good team and it's going to be really tough to win five games on the road... We were told Texas was downgraded for their bad loss versus Florida. Florida had a bunch of players drafted. Have you been to (Ben Hill Griffin) Stadium? It's one of the top 15 stadiums in the world."
He's not entirely wrong. The SEC produced 11 of the top 25 draft classes in college football this past spring. The 4-8 Florida team that beat Texas had seven draft picks, tying national champion Indiana. Even lowly Arkansas, who didn't win a game in SEC play, had more NFL draft picks than 12-2 BYU and 9-4 SMU, let alone the last-place teams in the other Power 4 leagues.
The SEC has also not been shy about its displeasure that the College Football Playoff's selection committee criteria does not adequately weigh strength of schedule. "Wins and losses," were the primary criteria, Drinkwitz said, followed by a formula he couldn't understand. From a Sports Illustrated report following the SEC/CFP meeting.
Per sources in the room, one league coach whose team was in the playoff mix but did not make the field said he felt worse after hearing the presentation than he did when his team was excluded on Selection Sunday.
"We were told Mississippi State was a bad loss, but they beat Arizona State, who was a quality win for some teams in the Big 12," Drinkwitz said Monday. "That math ain't mathing."
Missouri went 4-4 in SEC play last season. Ultimately, no one wants to hear about the grind of an SEC schedule from a coach whose team did not survive the grind of an SEC schedule. But that doesn't make Drinkwitz wrong, either. As the SEC stares down the barrel of its first 9-game slate coupled with a 12-team CFP bracket (remember, the SEC prefers 16, and added the ninth game with the understanding that would happen), there is bound to be buyer's remorse across the league.